The efficacy of a simulated tunnel washer process on removal and destruction of Clostridioides difficile spores from health care textiles.

Background: Research on reducing Clostridioides difficile spore contamination of textiles via laundering is needed. We evaluated the sporicidal properties of 5 laundry chemicals and then determined the ability of a peracetic acid (PAA) laundry cycle to inactivate and/or remove spores from cotton swatches during a simulated tunnel washer (TW) process.

Methods: In phase I, spore-inoculated swatches were immersed in alkaline detergent, sodium hypochlorite, hydrogen peroxide, or PAA for 8 minutes.

Notes from the Field: Probable Mucormycosis Among Adult Solid Organ Transplant Recipients at an Acute Care Hospital - Pennsylvania, 2014-2015.

On September 17, 2015, the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PADOH) notified CDC of a cluster of three potentially health care-associated mucormycete infections that occurred among solid organ transplant recipients during a 12-month period at hospital A. On September 18, hospital B reported that it had identified an additional transplant recipient with mucormycosis. Hospitals A and B are part of the same health care system and are connected by a pedestrian bridge.

Infection Prevention and Control in the Podiatric Medical Setting. Challenges to Providing Consistently Safe Care.

Unsafe practices are an underestimated contributor to the disease burden of bloodborne viruses. Outbreaks associated with failures in basic infection prevention have been identified in nonhospital settings with increased frequency in the United States during the past 15 years, representing an alarming trend and indicating that the challenge of providing consistently safe care is not always met. As has been the case with most medical specialties, public health investigations by state and local health departments, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have identified some instances of unsafe practices that have placed podiatric medical patients at risk for viral, bacterial, and fungal infections.

Healthcare Laundry and Textiles in the United States: Review and Commentary on Contemporary Infection Prevention Issues.

Healthcare professionals have questions about the infection prevention effectiveness of contemporary laundry processes for healthcare textiles (HCTs). Current industrial laundry processes achieve microbial reductions via physical, chemical, and thermal actions, all of which result in producing hygienically clean HCTs. European researchers have demonstrated that oxidative laundry additives have sufficient potency to meet US Environmental Protection Agency benchmarks for sanitizers and disinfectants.

Cleaning and disinfecting environmental surfaces in health care: Toward an integrated framework for infection and occupational illness prevention.

Background: The Cleaning and Disinfecting in Healthcare Working Group of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, National Occupational Research Agenda, is a collaboration of infection prevention and occupational health researchers and practitioners with the objective of providing a more integrated approach to effective environmental surface cleaning and disinfection (C&D) while protecting the respiratory health of health care personnel.

Methods: The Working Group, comprised of >40 members from 4 countries, reviewed current knowledge and identified knowledge gaps and future needs for research and practice.

Results: An integrated framework was developed to guide more comprehensive efforts to minimize harmful C&D exposures without reducing the effectiveness of infection prevention.

Infection Prevention and Control in the Podiatric Medical Setting: Challenges to Providing Consistently Safe Care.

Unsafe practices are an underestimated contributor to the disease burden of bloodborne viruses. Outbreaks associated with failures in basic infection prevention have been identified in nonhospital settings with increased frequency in the United States during the past 15 years, representing an alarming trend and indicating that the challenge of providing consistently safe care is not always met. As has been the case with most medical specialties, there have been public health investigations by state and local health departments, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified some instances of unsafe practices that have placed podiatric medical patients at risk for viral, bacterial, and fungal infections.

Mucormycosis outbreak associated with hospital linens.

Background: Mucormycosis is an invasive fungal infection with a high fatality rate. We investigated an outbreak of mucormycosis in a pediatric hospital to determine routes of pathogen transmission from the environment and prevent additional infections.

Methods: A case was defined as a hospital-onset illness consistent with mucormycosis, confirmed by culture or histopathology.

Management of neurosurgical instruments and patients exposed to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Objective: To summarize the approaches used to manage exposure of patients to inadequately sterilized neurosurgical instruments contaminated as a result of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD).

Methods: Information on past CJD exposure incidents reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was aggregated and summarized. In addition, inactivation studies were reviewed, and data from selected publications were provided for reference.

Infection control assessment of ambulatory surgical centers.

Context: More than 5000 ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) in the United States participate in the Medicare program. Little is known about infection control practices in ASCs. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) piloted an infection control audit tool in a sample of ASC inspections to assess facility adherence to recommended practices.

Investigation of a possible iatrogenic case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease after a neurosurgical procedure.

Objective: To investigate a case of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) possibly acquired from contaminated neurosurgical instruments.

Design: Retrospective review of medical records, hospital databases, service log books, and state vital statistics.

Setting: A tertiary care hospital (hospital A) in Missouri.

Guidelines for environmental infection control in health-care facilities. Recommendations of CDC and the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC).

The health-care facility environment is rarely implicated in disease transmission, except among patients who are immunocompromised. Nonetheless, inadvertent exposures to environmental pathogens (e.g.

An outbreak of neonatal deaths in Brazil associated with contaminated intravenous fluids.

A nursery outbreak of fever and clinical sepsis resulted in the deaths of 36 neonates in Roraima, Brazil. To determine the cause, epidemiologic studies were performed, along with culture and endotoxin analysis of intravenous (iv) fluids. Affected neonates were more likely to have lower birth weight (2.